I Will Follow You Into the Dark
by Andi Mack
Summary: Dedicated to Solid Snake's Soldier. One shot giftfic! Dave and Hal's friendship is tested, tried, and true when a tragedy is inevitable.


**A/N:** This piece is dedicated to my good friend and fellow writer Solid Snake's Soldier. This was inspired by the Death Cab For Cutie song "I Will Follow You Into the Dark". It's a beautiful, beautiful song (that I do not own and did not write) and one of the only songs in the world that can make me bawl on cue.

So here's a warning: This is probably the most painful, fluffy, heart breaking, depressing thing I've ever written...and I have no idea why (outside of the song it's inspired by being in the same tone). I'm not sad...it hasn't even been raining lately! Soldier, I'm not sure whether you should be flattered that this outpouring of emotion came out into a project for you or scared that this outpouring of emotion came out into a project for you. Either way, I hope you enjoy it and I hope you'll accept this as my endless thanks for your friendship and inspiration.

As always, sorry for any spelling and/or grammar errors. I'm my own editor! I don't own Metal Gear...blahblahblah...READ IT NOW!

* * *

_I Will Follow You Into the Dark_

* * *

He hates airports and he's managed to avoid them for nearly ten years. They are big, sterile, busy…impersonal. The last adjective is realized as he approaches the counter with his flight information. The woman takes it, routinely spots the area on the ticket she's been trained to look for to 'help' people, and waves him in a general direction. He looks back momentarily to confirm where he thinks she wants him to go and by the time he's turning back to her, she's waving the person behind him to where he's standing. He side steps to let 'next' to, more or less, receive the same treatment. He sighs. He'll find it on his own.

He hates airplanes. Ground travel has always felt safer to him but there's no time to do what's safe now. He's got one person on his mind as he brushes past a million faceless bodies and _he's_ damn worth the jolt from his traveling comfort zone. He needs to be there with him. He needed to be there yesterday, a month ago--but he hasn't been able to bring himself to accept what's happening until _now_. And _now_ is too late in his own mind.

No, that's a lie. He shouldn't have ever left his side in the first place but what _he_ lacks in strength and wellness, he makes up for in words. And he's got a lot of them. Words that unwillingly propelled him away from his friend, even though he knew he was sick.

He reaches the gate right as their loading his flight. That never happens. Impersonal stops near the thresh hold. The woman at side of the doorway smiles. Mechanically, probably due to the muscles in her face being stimulated to only do that much, but she means well. He walks through as she wishes him a 'great flight'. It bears the stings of sick sarcasm but it's only the way he took it, not the way it was meant and he knows that.

'Heavy hearted' is a phrase he identifies with for the first time in his life. In the past, nothing in his heart has ever amounted to enough to matter much less weigh it down. But _he_ does. He weighs it down, he gives it a purpose to continue to beat, and in the same breath and motion, he breaks it.

It shouldn't even be _him_ who's sick. He's the one who's body is quietly and painfully deteriorating. He's the one who should be laying in his deathbed. Not Hal. Hal didn't do anything. He's never killed anyone. He's never even liked the idea of it. He still flinches slightly when one of his animes turn a little too violent or the blood in a movie looks a little too realistic. God, not Hal. And God, not cancer.

A woman in a uniform that almost matches the plane's exterior comes over to Dave. She is tall and beautiful. Warm smile, bright eyes. Slight glow in her speech, almost like hope.

She must be new. Not only to the job, but to life. Early 20s. Hope doesn't last through experience with either one.

Her voice is as airy and smooth as the plane ride they are sharing.

"Can I get you anything, sir?"

_A miracle_.

"No, I'm fine," he says and turns his head back to the window prematurely. She's still looking at him.

"Are you okay, sir?"

A valve opens up in him that wants to pour out everything, rid himself of the toxicity. But he snaps it shut with the shake of his head.

"No, I'm fine." The words are the same, but they aren't necessarily true now. He knows what 'fine' feels like and this certainly isn't it.

Dave's plane ride is long and sleepless, much like his last few nights at home. All he wants to do is get to Hal and the eight hour flight is in a time warp that makes every second last longer than it has to.

A little more than what he guesses should be half the flight passes before he notices another soul approach him. Actually, it's the same one. The one new to everything. The plane is full of worry free passengers getting to wherever they need to be in good time. Worry free can sleep and every last one of them chooses to.

"Sir," she wisps out so that only they can hear, "I don't mean to get too personal but, you look really troubled."

She has no idea.

He can't fake a small smile or a small lie at this point. He sighs without looking at her.

"I just want to be alone."

"I understand. Uhm, here." He sees the motions of her taking something from around her neck and laying it in the empty seat next to him. "I'm not very religious but, it's always helped me. I don't know why but as soon as I saw you get on the plane, I just wanted to give it you. I don't think I've ever seen anyone carrying such a sorrow."

And with that, she leaves, respecting his wishes of make shift isolation. His curiosity drags his eyes to the seat.

A cross. A simple, silver cross on a thin chain. He's not religious either but, he understands the gesture. He wants to call her back, give it back to her, and tell her that even if he did believe in a Heaven and Hell that neither one of them will want him when he dies. But, after all the figuring, it's easier to just take it.

* * *

It takes him several minutes to walk up the walkway. His legs fuse with the cement leading up to the front door and it drains his desire to even want to be on the other side of it anymore. Unfortunately, his hesitation is being watched through the slit of a pair of curtains on a window and soon, a little girl emerges from the door. She hesitates as well in her spot but decides to be the brave one and make the first move. Toward him.

"Dave, are you okay?" Concern has permanently settled in her tiny voice in the past few months and he's sure he's gotten a little bit of what has been reserved for Hal.

"Yeah, I just..." Can't move. He can't hurry himself to see his friend the way he could when he was 3,000 miles away. The reality of the 30 feet between them now is breaking down all communication from his brain to his feet.

A tiny hand slips into his, tightens around it.

"Come on, Dave." She's gentle with words but firm in action. She tugs him a little but it has all the effects of a jerk that sends a shock back into his senses. Although he's able to move, his hand stays in hers. She doesn't want anymore mishaps.

She doesn't let go until she's safely closed the door behind him, unless his motor skills decide to shift his body into reverse without warning. At that point, he doesn't feel that's exactly impossible, either. He lingers in the silence of the living room, waiting for his brain to stimulate words. Any words.

"Where's Hal?" They don't come from anywhere. They are carbon copies of the words he knows he should be saying stored from a time where he has said them before, under different, better circumstances.

She leads and he prepares himself for something that could amount to every war horror he's ever seen...times one hundred. Before he knows it, he's in a tiny room with a sofa, a chair, and a computer. There's a body at the computer, typing in the same fashion and speed as Dave's seen Hal do many times. His fingers suddenly stop to turn and look at the doorway.

"Hey...there you are! Sunny and I were wondering when you'd get here."

Dave breathes out confusion, breathes in relief. His friend isn't sick at all. He just looks...tired like he does when he's had an all nighter researching something on nothing but endless pots of coffee. He's lost a little weight but Hal's never been one to eat a lot anyway...especially when he's working. His skin's a little translucent but Dave knows he couldn't tan laying on a bed of aluminum foil doused in baby oil. He feels his heart jump when Hal smiles at him, preparing to stand up and give him a hug. He wants an apology from him for lying about being ill but he doesn't care if it never comes.

He walks to meet Hal halfway as he watches him stand but...something's wrong. Once he's on his feet, he goes crashing back into the computer chair. Sunny races to his side, and he pats her softly on the hand that she has resting on his arm.

"I'm okay, Sunny. I just got a little dizzy."

He tries again, much slower, using the strength he has now not the memories of strength he used to have. They embrace but Dave doesn't feel a hug...he feels his fragility. And when his friend looks up at him, perhaps to gage if he's as happy to see him, Dave sees he's not tired or too busy to eat or unable to tan. He's dying. All of a sudden, the mercenary feels like he's the one that should be sitting. Hal knows his friend is a man of few words but knows it's not a personality trait keeping him from speaking now.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" Hal reminds him that it's his turn to talk now. The truth is, for the past several seconds Dave's brain has been translating all the impulses from his mind to talk but none of it's been verbalizing. Hal turns to Sunny.

"Sunny, uhm, why do you make sure Dave's old room is ready for him, okay?" She hesitates slightly but takes her cue to leave the room. He turns back to Dave. "Do I look that bad?"

"What?" He knows he has to got to say something and it's the first thing that doesn't fight to stay inside.

"You're looking at me like I'm dead already, Dave."

"I'm sorry." Dave walks to the sofa and allows his legs to finally collapse from under him like they've been begging to do.

"I guess it's my fault. I should have warned you, I suppose."

"You did warn me." he reminds him...and his self.

"The doctors...they say with treatment, I'd have about three months."

It's not what he wants to hear but he forces it to lighten the air. "That's...not so bad, right?"

Hal doesn't look at him and doesn't feel like he's ever going to again.

"I refused treatment."

The words are an explosion of a punch to his gut. "But...why?"

"Because I want to live, Dave. Living is not being zapped with radiation or poisoned with various chemicals. I don't want my last days to be remembered like that." His face softens, almost into a sob, "And Sunny...I can't let her see me like that. I care about her too much to make those her last images of me."

His energy unexpectedly gives away a bit and brings his hands to rest on his knees. He puts one of his hands out in front of him when he feels Dave's hurried response to be at his side. He wants to tell him there's nothing he can do but he fears the mercenary will have to find out for himself. He puts his weight onto the arm of the sofa and eases down onto it, as if he could break at moment.

"Without treatment..."

"I've got about a month." Hal finishes for him in a frankness that makes Dave's insides move and him shift uncomfortably in his seat. Hal puts his hand on the soldier's shoulder and attempts to see his face but the weight of everything is driving it parallel to the floor. "I'm sorry I pushed you away before but when I found out I was sick, I didn't even want to be around myself...much less anyone else. I'm really happy that you're here now, Dave."

He's silent. He's trying to figure out if he still is or not.

* * *

Dave's reflexes pop his eyes open into the darkness of the room. It takes him a second realize the frantic pounding he hears is not coming solely from his heart but from the door as well. Something's not right and he knows immediately. He jumps to answer it before his brain can even begin to wonder what that something might be.

It's Sunny. She's sobbing so hard, she's gasping for air and then coughing it right back out. He grabs her by her shoulders. He needs her to say something.

"Sunny...what's wrong? Is something wrong with Hal?"

_He's gone. Oh, God...I know he's gone. _

She fights to stop crying but her composure will only last long enough for a couple of words to get through.

"He's hurting his self!"

"What?!"

Her gasping sobs return but Dave runs past her, down the long hallway to Hal's room at the other end. He sees Hal dig the steel wool pad in his left hand even deeper into the bleeding that's on his right arm.

"Please...help me! Get them off me!"

He grabs his arms and Hal fights wildly with him.

"Hal! There's nothing on you!"

"Let go of me!" The effort is great but he's too weak for it to get results he wants. "They're on me! I have to get them off!"

Dave senses Sunny in the doorway and he talks without looking back at her.

"Go get me cold cloth. Hurry!" He listens to her bare feet slap down on the hardwood hall floor en route to the kitchen. Hal is still fighting his grip, but his energy and will is thinning greatly.

"All of the spiders...they're on me." He closes eyes. His strength's depleted but he knows he's safe in the mercenary's grip. Safe from everything.

"It's okay, Hal. You're okay."

"Are they crawling on you too?" His mouth barely opens to let his voice strain out.

"No, they're not on me."

"Make them go away. Please, make them go away, Dave." His body twists as his pleas turn tearful. "It hurts so much."

"Try and calm down. They're gone. I promise."

"No...they're not. Not if the man in the corner is still there..."

"Hal, listen to me," Dave says, "You're hallucinating. There were no spiders and there's no man in the corner."

His sure, strong voice commands his eyes open. He blinks at Dave just as Sunny hurries the cloth into his hand. His body jumps a little at the cold contact but he concentrates on the small angel's hand stroking his hair. Dave takes a good look at Hal's arms for the first time. They're damage matches and look as if they've been dragged across asphalt for several hundred yards.

"Your arms, Uncle Hal..." Sunny's been looking at them too. She picks his right arm up in her hand but doesn't touch the abrasions.

"It's not as bad as it looks." Hal says but she's not convinced. "I just--"

His abrupt halt only worries Dave when he looks down at his face.

"Hal...what wrong?" he asks, keeping the cloth on his forehead. Hal clamps his eyes close again and shakes his head, the tears building in his voice again. He's trying to move back but his strength isn't enough to overcome the hold Dave has on him.

"Please don't hurt me. Dave, please don't let him hurt me." He buries his face into Dave's side. He looks in the same spots that Hal has for a shadow or an object that possibly could have triggered his fright but there's nothing but a wall.

"Hal, there's nothing there. You have to trust me."

He cries heavily into his friends side. He feels the dark man touching him. The prickly pins and needs travel up his spine and makes him grasp his friend tighter.

"Dave...he's touching me! Please, make it go away!" He begs as the pins and needles push harder, deeper into his skin.

"Make what go away?"

He opens his eyes to the room again but everything gets caught at once and then releases all at once into a loud, salty scream. The man is hovering above him and when it reaches out to him, it pushes a pin and needle into every inch of his muscles.

"Hal!" Dave yells to him. He can feel the poor guy's whole body stiffen under his grip. He touches his shoulder but he cries out like he just tried to break it. "Hal, you have to calm down...or your muscles will continue to contract."

"What's happening to him?" He's almost forgotten Sunny was there...but she's been watching everything.

"Sunny...right now Hal is in a lot of pain. Whatever he's seeing his causing his nervous system to go haywire and his whole body to constrict."

"Is he going to be okay?"

"Sunny...I need you to be very brave for me, okay? I know you can do that and I really need you to be right now."

The little girl wipes away the tears on her face and with it anything that might hinder her from doing what he needs her to. She nods her head with all the courage of a soldier about to go to war.

"Okay. I need you to go fill up the bathtub with cold water. Nothing but cold water. And if you can find any ice cubes, throw those in there."

"But...he's going to freeze!"

"I know, Sunny...and he's probably gonna hate me for a while but it's the only thing we can do loosen up his muscles as fast as we need to. So, I need you to go and do that."

Without further hesitation or a single question left behind her eyes, she leaps off the bed and heads for bathroom.

For the next five minutes, there isn't anything he can do but watch his friend's body draw inward, clenched and trembling in a dangerous combination of unfathomable fear and pain. Dave carefully picks him up, hooking his arms in the hinges of his knees. He cries out again, but Dave's in a mad rush to see the doorway to the bathroom.

When he enters with Hal, the bathtub is filled a little more than halfway with scattered chunks of ice littering the top. She's done good.

"I'm sorry," he says as he slowly begins to lower the man into the water, fully clothed still in white t-shirt and black, cotton sleep pants. Hal grips Dave tightly as if he's falling off the edge of the earth as the first parts of his body begin to feel the temperature drop. Once in, his frame shakes uncontrollably from the water but he soon realizes the pain is subsiding and his muscles are smoothing out in his body again. Dave and Sunny begin kneading and rubbing out the tension in his legs and arms that the water doesn't work on right away. Soon, his breathing slows and though his body continues to chatter, it's only from the water now and it's a welcomed feeling.

"Uncle Hal...are you okay?" Sunny asks.

Every fiber in his body is now too beautifully iced to move but he barely nods anyway.

In another swift motion from Dave, Hal's out of the tub, towels and blankets coming from every direction. He looks up at the solider admirably like he has for years before as he does his best to warm him between all the fabric.

"Dave...I'm s-s-sorry for being so m-m-much trouble." The words chatter out between his teeth.

"You're not trouble."

Twenty minutes later, it's as if the ordeal never happened. Hal lays dry, comfortable, bandaged, and sleeping peacefully in his bed as Sunny heavy-lidded but determinedly, looks on. Dave watches Hal too but soon abruptly leaves the room.

He goes into the kitchen, braces himself on the sink. The whole thing has left him weary. Emotionally. He begs his reality to stop turning so fast. Just for a moment, just to give him time to get back on and learn to deal with everything at hand. He wants to scream at the sound of his own heart shattering and he almost does until he notices two brown eyes staring at him. They've been crying again, but it's an after effect of everything they've seen.

"Thank you, Dave." She says in the realization of what might have happened if he hadn't been there.

"I couldn't have done it without you. You did really, really good tonight, Sunny." She takes the commendation and pat on her shoulder without a smile. She wishes there wouldn't have ever been a need for her to receive it. "You should try and get some sleep. It's been a long night for everyone."

She nods and goes back down the hallway. He watches her just long enough to see her walk past her own bedroom and go straight back into Hal's to continue to watch over him. He sighs and concludes that she's braver than he is.

* * *

Sunny's watched Hal for five minutes, stare down at the floor, then the doorway, then the wall, and back at her. She knows he wants to say something and there's part of her that wants to hit his back to try and make him belch out the words but she waits patiently, quietly. Hands in her lap, heart prepared for anything.

"Sunny," he finally inches out with all the bravery of a baby taking it's first steps, "This isn't a subject I've been excited to talk about but, we have to now. Time is running out." He urges her to sit in the spot next to him on the sofa and she does so. "Sunny, I've made arrangements for you to go with Meryl and Johnny after... after I'm gone."

She's prepared for anything but _this_.

"But...why can't I go live with Dave?"

"Come on, Sunny, you don't want to live in Alaska. That's no place for someone like you."

"I swear I don't mind! I want to live with Dave."

"I'm sorry but, that's just not possible."

"Why?"

"Because...because Dave doesn't have much time left either."

"But what if he needs someone there with him?"

"You can't take care of the whole world, Sunny. You just can't. I know you're a little too young to think about what seeing all of this is going to do to you in the long run but that's why me and Dave are doing this."

"I don't want to take care of the whole world! I want to take care of you and Dave!" She's almost screaming. The raise of volume in her voice throws Hal back. He's never heard anything but caring and concern radiate from her and the overlaying layer of anger actually stings him a little bit.

"The decision's already made and Dave and I both want it this way. When he goes back to Alaska, you're going with Meryl and Johnny."

"What about what I want?!"

"You don't get what you want this time. You got your way a few month ago when I tried to send you to live with them when I first found out I was sick. You've already seen way too much, more than any child should." He reaches out to touch her face but she turns it away from him. She doesn't want his affection right now and it makes him take back his hand as if she's wounded it. "I don't want you to hate me but I have to do what's best for you. I really hope you'll understand one day."

She runs out of the room, pushing past Dave who's just appeared in the doorway. They both listen to her run down the hall but Hal's the only one that winces when she slams her room door.

"So, I guess that means you told her."

Hal lets the back of the sofa catch his head and sighs deeply. "Why couldn't she just be normal and be stomping out over not getting a toy or something? I could handle that."

"Because then, she wouldn't be Sunny." He reminds him.

"She hates me, Dave. I really hope I'm doing the right thing."

"If you feel this bad about it, it probably means you are."

He raises his head to look at Dave. "She brings up a good point, though. Are you going to be okay alone in Alaska?"

"I'll be as okay as I need to be until it's my time."

"I wish I could be like that. I've always tried to follow your collected and laid back lead to a certain extent but, it's never gotten me anywhere."

"Follow me? I'm not a very good role model, Hal."

"But you've always been so cool and calm about everything, ready for any situation no matter how sudden or dangerous. I've always just broken under the pressure but you...you never freak out or lose your composure. I have no idea how you do it."

Dave wants to tell him it's all an act, a lie, a ruse even, but he can see in his eyes—those blue eyes slowly losing their zest and spirit—that he depends on that cover from him. And as scared as Dave is of everything that he's believed to be taking lightly, he's more afraid to let his friend down.

"It's a practiced skill," he finally says, "just like anything else is."

"It's a skill I'll never master." He pauses. "Something I seem to be really good at these days though is pushing people away."

"Hal...you don't have to explain why you told me to leave six months ago. I understand. It's water under the bridge."

"I owe it to you, though. I told my best friend I didn't ever want to see him again because I got scared when I realized he couldn't protect me from this. Perhaps a little angry, even. I just wanted to be alone in this house so I could wallow in my own self pity." He smiles, looking in the direction that Sunny went into. "She wouldn't let me though...and she fought me so hard to stay here until I just didn't have it in me to take her on anymore. She never gave up on me even though there were times when I did."

"I wanted to give you time to work out whatever you needed to but...I never gave up on you."

"I know you didn't. You came back after all. Dave to the rescue of Hal...just like always, huh?"

_If he only knew how wrong he had it._

"Yeah, just like always."

* * *

Hal is losing the harder he fights with his body to keep going, to keep breathing. His respiration is shallow, labored but it's steady. He can't even look at Sunny now because the tightening in his chest that happens when he does would kill him instantly. He hears her sobs, but he looks at Dave on the opposite side of his bed. There he is. Being strong enough for the both of them again. Being cool and collected enough to make even him think that maybe he's not dying after all. That maybe it's a dream and he's been napping on a mission, waiting for him to Codec in his latest findings. But, he feels hope for it all be imaginary fade when there's a twinkle of panic of Dave's eyes. It flashes so quickly but Hal notices it because it's so foreign and out of place for the mercenary's eyes.

"Hal...", he calls to him, his voice is the lightest he's ever heard it. "Are you in any pain?"

"No..." He wants him to define pain so that he can answer as honestly as he can. He's also been wanting to tell him something. It's not important but his mind's fuzzy and clouded and can't remember what it is anyway. Suddenly, he feels a ball of heat burst inside of him and come pouring down his face but his body's not matching the motions of crying. He takes everything in him to look away from Dave.

"I'm so...scared. I'm not...as brave as you...Dave. I don't want...to be alone." There's no volume in his speech and that's not what he wanted to say, but he can't stop the confession from pouring out with the tears. He feels a body lay beside his. A head on his chest. An arm across his midsection. It's holding on to him for everything it's worth.

"Don't leave me, Uncle Hal. Please."

His chest tightens and he's not even looking at Sunny. Dave's beginning to crack. But he can't. He's the rock. He's the sure thing. He's the steady entity.

"You're going to be okay, Hal."

"Please..." Hal's loses what he's pleading for now. He drops the thought like a baton but Dave's right there to pick it up.

"I won't let you be alone. _I'll_ follow _you_, now Hal. Wherever you go—into the light or into the dark—I'll be right behind you. We'll see each other again, soon. I promise."

There's the unexpected result of relief that travels through him. He trusts him. He trusts him so much...that he stops fighting. He knows he's smiling now because it reflects back in Dave's eyes. He turns to Sunny. He can look at her just fine, now. He want to reach up, wipe the all her tears away like he always does but his arms can't find the lift to do it. Instead, he drinks in her sweet, brown eyes, her head lightly resting under his chin, her sobs entering the hollowness of his chest. That's all he needs until he sees his friend again. He closes his eyes to lock it away and he takes it with him. He takes it all with him...

Sunny can't let go. Her fingers are gripped so tightly, so lovingly around Hal's side, that they ache. They could break off and she wouldn't' notice. Or care. She ignores the hand that caresses her back and fights it when it picks her up and takes her away from her Uncle Hal but her battle doesn't last long. She's got nothing left. She doesn't talk and neither does the owner of the neck her hands are wrapped around or shoulder her tears are spilling onto now.

"He's gone, Sunny." She knows already. Dave's telling himself. He's trying to hammer the reality into his mind but it rejects back at him -- 'Invalid thought.' 'Does not recognize logic.'

He his arms lose their strength to hold Sunny anymore and with it, his mind loses the sanity required to be in that room anymore. He lands her softly on her feet and stumbles out. Drunk with pain. Staggering with confusion. He makes it back to his room. All of sudden, it's so dark. So airless. He's losing his sense of self now too. Or maybe he lost the moment Hal's eyes closed that last time. It doesn't matter because everything in the room is stealing something important to him and he can't take it. He throws it all on the floor. Or rips it apart. Or turns it over. Or breaks it. Everything's becoming chaotic and smashed and unrepairable...just like everything inside of him already is.

He crashes to his knees in the middle of his destruction, his arms feel like twigs holding up a bolder. If only Hal could see him now. _Not_ being cool. _Not _being collected. _Not_ in control of anything...he'd see _he _was the readiness and the calm and _the rescuer_. Dave's arms are buckling under. His senses are wavering in and out.

"Dave!" Two soft hands dare to touch the fire on his heart. They are the bravest hands he know. "Dave, what's wrong?!"

He looks up at the sweet little girl kneeling next to him. She's trying to heal him. She sees the pain and she's trying to take it into herself. He can't let her do that. He puts an arm up, pushes her away but just as he does, his world topples hard to the ground, taking him with it. There's a sudden stop in everything except the downward spiraling of the pit he's found himself falling into. He feels her hands slap across his face, but what's she's saying—no—screaming, he can't make out. Now, she's...crying. Are the tears for him? No, people like him don't get tears. People like him don't deserve tears. She's pulling him to her, fighting the battle he should be fighting, but something a lot more powerful and demanding is pulling him away from her, further into the pit. He doesn't know what though but he doesn't have the instinct to resist it...

He doesn't know anything else in the world except that he keeps promises and that he wants to tell Hal that now more than ever. More than anything. And as soon as he catches up to follow him to wherever he's going, he knows it'll be the first thing he says to him.

* * *

_You and me_

_Have seen everything to see_

_From Bangkok to Calgary_

_And the sole of your shoes_

_Are all worn down_

_The time for sleep is now_

_But it's nothing to cry about_

_Because we'll hold each other soon_

_In the blackest of rooms_

_If Heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied_

_Illuminate the 'no's on their vacancy signs_

_If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks_

_Then I'll follow you into the dark._


End file.
